10 Biggest Missed Opportunities In Recent Comic Book Movies

Before Shazam! had even been announced, the Rock was ecstatic to announce to the world that he had been tapped to play classic DC villain Black Adam. He even teased a potential brawl with Henry Cavill's Superman. The man made so much noise about it on social media that it was assumed that he'd be featured in the first movie about Earth's Mightiest Mortal.

But he wasn't. Instead, Shazam sparred with his other primary antagonist, Dr. Sivana, in his maiden outing into the DCEU. And it was still a very good movie, the best in the franchise to date, but it gave the most fleeting of references to a champion of the Wizard Shazam prior to Billy Batson and the post-credit teaser was for, of all things, Mr. Mind.

What happened? DC and Warner Bros. had literally the most marketable actor on the planet playing one of the most iconic villains in their considerable vault of comic lore and they didn't give him so much as a frame of Shazam! to start building him up.

At this point, the hype for seeing Dwayne Johnson to turn Zachary Levi into his personal chew toy has died down, though Johnson's sheer charisma could build it back up in a heartbeat. But Warner Bros. could have at least made it a little easier for him.